Las Vegas -- Twice!
I went to Las Vegas this week . . . twice. Once on Monday, and then on Saturday.
Monday we flew into McCarran airport in Las Vegas, Nevada for a layover on our way home from L.A.
We had spent Labor Day weekend in California with my son and daughter in law, and had a wonderful time, including a picnic supper in the open air boxes at the Hollywood Bowl to see John Williams (he's 86 for heaven's sake!) conduct the L.A. Philharmonic. Of course he conducted Star Wars and of course there were lightsabers in the stands. It was a blast.
A layover in Las Vegas on Labor Day, traveling with the crowds massed in the airport and assaulted by beeping slot machines at every gate -- that was not such a blast. But we made it home safely and our flights were on time and the whole weekend with family was well worth any travel stress. I saw as much of Las Vegas as I could tolerate.
On Saturday we found ourselves in Las Vegas again! Only this time it was Las Vegas, New Mexico and we drove there.
It's only an hour from Santa Fe, less if you could zip straight over the mountains, but you have to drive around the Sangre de Cristos to get there. It's unnerving to see signs on the highway for "Las Vegas - 60 miles" if you don't know that they mean the small town in New Mexico, and not Sin City two states away.
Las Vegas NM is a forgotten in time town (population 13,000) with an Old Town that has a shady plaza, a classic western hotel with saloon on the square, and shops and small eateries all around. It started as a stop for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, and then eventually became a wealthy railroad town in the 1880s. It's touristy, but not like Santa Fe, or even like Taos.
It's much quieter, and more rustic / shabby. It's a typical western town.
And it was very, very green.
Northern New Mexico has had an active monsoon season this summer, and storms have formed all over the area almost every afternoon since July. Lots and lots of storms, but they are very isolated, and ever since the late July flood event here, rarely have the black clouds delivered any rain over our house -- a half inch once or twice, some drizzle or sprinkles sometimes. Lots of clouds and lightning, but no direct rain.
But Las Vegas, to the east of us and on the other side of the mountain range, has been drenched over and over. Every radar map showed large cells moving southeast over Las Vegas. They have had so much rain recently.
It looked like it. On the drive there, grassy open meadows were so green, with wildflowers blooming abundantly and tawny grass seedheads waving. Las Vegas is where the pine forest mountain uplands of the state meet the wide plains of the midwest. Everywhere flowery fields gave way to grassy hills which gave way to deep green pines climbing the mountain slopes. It was all wet and green and lush.
The neighborhoods in town have the typical little western bungalows and then there are streets with big Victorian houses from the railroad wealth era, and all had vibrant green lawns and flowerbeds bursting. The town just looked refreshed.
There is a small liberal arts state college, New Mexico Highlands University, right next to the Old Town area, and the campus looked very nice -- well kept, snazzy buildings, beautiful green lawns and trees.
In the railroad era, the town boomed, and Carnegie built a library that is still the town's pride. It's modeled after Jefferson's Monticello, which is sort of evident.
There is a very small museum that memorializes Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders -- he recruited men from Las Vegas for his famous corps. For a long time in the 1800s the town was a hotbed of outlaws and lawlessness that rivaled any of the legends of the west. Doc Holliday had a dental office here, the Dodge City Gang operated for years and cattle rustling was a lucrative profession. It was the real wild west, at one time bigger than Denver and the largest city between Kansas City and San Francisco.
But its economy imploded in the last century after the railroad industry collapsed. There was no money for renovating buildings or stuccoing over things, and so much original architecture has remained frozen in time as it looked before statehood.
Our visit was on a lovely, sunny day, the drive through God's green land was a stunning surprise, and we enjoyed being tourists in a western town. We ate at the saloon. We toured the neighborhoods and we marveled at what New Mexico looks like when it rains.
While I could barely abide a few hours in Las Vegas, Nevada on the way to somewhere else, I loved visiting Las Vegas, New Mexico. What a great small town.
Monday we flew into McCarran airport in Las Vegas, Nevada for a layover on our way home from L.A.
We had spent Labor Day weekend in California with my son and daughter in law, and had a wonderful time, including a picnic supper in the open air boxes at the Hollywood Bowl to see John Williams (he's 86 for heaven's sake!) conduct the L.A. Philharmonic. Of course he conducted Star Wars and of course there were lightsabers in the stands. It was a blast.
A layover in Las Vegas on Labor Day, traveling with the crowds massed in the airport and assaulted by beeping slot machines at every gate -- that was not such a blast. But we made it home safely and our flights were on time and the whole weekend with family was well worth any travel stress. I saw as much of Las Vegas as I could tolerate.
On Saturday we found ourselves in Las Vegas again! Only this time it was Las Vegas, New Mexico and we drove there.
It's only an hour from Santa Fe, less if you could zip straight over the mountains, but you have to drive around the Sangre de Cristos to get there. It's unnerving to see signs on the highway for "Las Vegas - 60 miles" if you don't know that they mean the small town in New Mexico, and not Sin City two states away.
Las Vegas NM is a forgotten in time town (population 13,000) with an Old Town that has a shady plaza, a classic western hotel with saloon on the square, and shops and small eateries all around. It started as a stop for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, and then eventually became a wealthy railroad town in the 1880s. It's touristy, but not like Santa Fe, or even like Taos.
And it was very, very green.
Northern New Mexico has had an active monsoon season this summer, and storms have formed all over the area almost every afternoon since July. Lots and lots of storms, but they are very isolated, and ever since the late July flood event here, rarely have the black clouds delivered any rain over our house -- a half inch once or twice, some drizzle or sprinkles sometimes. Lots of clouds and lightning, but no direct rain.
But Las Vegas, to the east of us and on the other side of the mountain range, has been drenched over and over. Every radar map showed large cells moving southeast over Las Vegas. They have had so much rain recently.
It looked like it. On the drive there, grassy open meadows were so green, with wildflowers blooming abundantly and tawny grass seedheads waving. Las Vegas is where the pine forest mountain uplands of the state meet the wide plains of the midwest. Everywhere flowery fields gave way to grassy hills which gave way to deep green pines climbing the mountain slopes. It was all wet and green and lush.
The neighborhoods in town have the typical little western bungalows and then there are streets with big Victorian houses from the railroad wealth era, and all had vibrant green lawns and flowerbeds bursting. The town just looked refreshed.
There is a small liberal arts state college, New Mexico Highlands University, right next to the Old Town area, and the campus looked very nice -- well kept, snazzy buildings, beautiful green lawns and trees.
In the railroad era, the town boomed, and Carnegie built a library that is still the town's pride. It's modeled after Jefferson's Monticello, which is sort of evident.
There is a very small museum that memorializes Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders -- he recruited men from Las Vegas for his famous corps. For a long time in the 1800s the town was a hotbed of outlaws and lawlessness that rivaled any of the legends of the west. Doc Holliday had a dental office here, the Dodge City Gang operated for years and cattle rustling was a lucrative profession. It was the real wild west, at one time bigger than Denver and the largest city between Kansas City and San Francisco.
But its economy imploded in the last century after the railroad industry collapsed. There was no money for renovating buildings or stuccoing over things, and so much original architecture has remained frozen in time as it looked before statehood.
Our visit was on a lovely, sunny day, the drive through God's green land was a stunning surprise, and we enjoyed being tourists in a western town. We ate at the saloon. We toured the neighborhoods and we marveled at what New Mexico looks like when it rains.
While I could barely abide a few hours in Las Vegas, Nevada on the way to somewhere else, I loved visiting Las Vegas, New Mexico. What a great small town.
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